Six years after a state law invalidated Milwaukee's residency requirement for city employees, nearly half of police officers and firefighters live outside the city, an alderman said Wednesday as a Common Council committee discussed efforts to incentivize living within the city limits.
Ald. Michael Murphy said as he understood the numbers from the Department of Employee Relations, 42% of Milwaukee police officers don't live in the city and the number for firefighters is about the same.
"I mean, you can extrapolate the trend to probably towards 50% by the end of this year in terms of our police force and firefighters," he said.
For other employees, he said, it's about 15%.
Last year, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that 33% of police officers and 37% of firefighters did not live in the city.